The Washington Workshops Foundation is pleased to recognize and congratulate the 2017 Essay Contest Scholars for the annual National Society of the Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) Essay Contest. For the past 39 years the NSCDA has generously underwritten a national essay contest with the mission of encouraging students from across the United States to gain a greater understanding of our history, a greater understanding of our three branches of government and the importance of being engaged citizens in our Democracy. The Washington Workshops Foundation would also like to thank you NSCDA for their generous support and our 39 year partnership and commitment to the future leaders of America. Congratulations to all of the NSCDA Scholars and Legacy Students! Our entire team look forward to welcoming you to Our Nation’s Capital in June!

The Workshop Foundation is pleased to announce the Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation has awarded a generous grant to support the Democracy In Action seminar from June 17-23, 2017 in Washington. DC. Since 1998 the Workshops Foundation has enjoyed the great privilege of working with Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation on this important program and we are very grateful for their support!

The 2017 Democracy In Acton Scholarships will be awarded to High School students from the state of Texas to attend a one-week seminar in Our Nation’s Capital for a hands-on learning experience of how our three branches of government work together to create public policy with an even more detailed analysis of the Legislative branch of government. Scholars will hear from a variety of guest speakers, meet with members of the US Congress and work together in committees to develop legislation they will propose and debate in their Model Congress simulation. In addition scholars will have the opportunity to enjoy the notable sights of Washington, DC and celebrate the end of a great week on a dinner/dance cruise on the Potomac River.

Thank you to the Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation for supporting this important program!

In the late 1960’s, a young Johns Hopkins and Harvard Law School graduate, then working on Capitol Hill as a congressional assistant and speechwriter, decided that the time was at hand to invite first hundreds, and then over ensuing decades, thousands of young American high school students from across the nation, to travel to Washington, DC to partake first-hand in short study seminars with leaders of American national government.

That first Washington Workshops seminar was held in the early summer of 1968. That year witnessed 12 months of historic turmoil in America. First came the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy, brother of the slain President, quickly accompanied by searing riots in city after city culminating in armed troops with drawn bayonets surrounding the U. S. Capitol building! Then occurred a tumultuous national political convention in Chicago, and later the unexpected refusal of President Lyndon Johnson to seek re-election. All of this shocked and galvanized a reeling America.

These many events and more cast amidst the unfolding drama of a growing war in Vietnam, brought increasing numbers of students to Washington to protest America’s controversial role in that far away land. It was a time when Members of Congress actually wanted to see fewer young Americans come to Washington, fearing more and worsening street demonstrations and an upending of U.S. foreign policy.

In such a climate, indeed perhaps because of it, Leo Tonkin thought the time never better for young Americans, with so much of their future at stake, to come to their nation’s capital, not to tear apart the fabric of government, but to meet and sensibly discuss with their elected leaders, their own deeply felt beliefs on the present and future course of America and its role in the international community.

A Washington Workshops commitment was forged that summer of 1968 that would bring together, session after session, year after year, bright and involved teenage Americans travelling to Washington, the epicenter of American and International Politics, and there to engage in the very essence of participatory democracy.

And thus was born the Washington Workshops and the high school student Congressional Seminars. Over the following years, Jr. High and Middle School student seminars have joined the roster, along with special and highly regarded internship programs on Capitol Hill available to a smaller group of high school and college students. Throughout its years of educational accomplishment, Washington Workshops has championed a unique experiential approach to the study of American civic education, all in a remarkable environment creating “..memories for a lifetime”.

Many Washington Workshops students have gone on to assume positions of leadership in their own communities, including state legislators, small town and big city mayors, and members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Perhaps the enduring success of the Washington Workshops is best summed up in the words of the Americanism Award of the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation presented to Leo Tonkin and Washington Workshops by then vice president of the United States Gerald R. Ford in a 1974 White House Ceremony, citing Washington Workshops “….for helping to bring about a better understanding of the American way of life”.

Late in his own life, Mr. Tonkin established and endowed a scholarship program for a continuing group of young Americans to participate in the Advanced Congressional Seminar, including an internship on Capitol Hill. These young recipients, know as Tonkin Scholars, will have a matchless opportunity for a hands-on dialogue with their nation’s leaders and undoubtedly go on in their own unique ways to help fashion a bright, free and dynamic America of the future.

And through the decades the Washington Workshops has now evolved simply to the Workshops Foundation. This slight adjustment in our name look and feel doesn’t change our principles and passion for experiential education. It allows us to broaden our program offerings including new and exciting offerings in Washington, DC and a host of new programs coming online in 2016 to points around the globe.

About Workshops Foundation

Since 1967, the Workshops Foundation has provided experience-based educational travel programs to highly motivated, academically prepared, and inquisitive people from across the United States and around the world. The majority of our programs have brought students and educators to Washington, D.C. for a more comprehensive understanding of leadership, civic education, the federal government, U.S. politics, American history, and global affairs. Programs available include simulations of the U.S. Congress, internships, academically themed seminars, professional development, and person-to-person exchange.